Peace Country

Firehall Arts Centre to October 22, 2023
Tickets from $30 at 604-689-0926 or www.firehallartscentre.ca

Posted October 20, 2023

Fresh. Real. Relevant. Inclusive. That’s Peace Country, written by Pedro Chamale, and the Firehall Arts Centre’s 23/24 season opener. A rice & beans theatre production, presented by the Firehall, this is theatre that really matters. To us.

An almost stunned silence at the end (before enthusiastic applause erupted) told me playwright Chamale, the performers (Manuela Sosa, Sofia Rodriguez, Kaitlyn Yott, Sara Vickruck and Angus Yam), and the design and technical team had done their job really, really well.

Chamale sets the play somewhere in northern BC in the very near future. A new provincial political party has been created – the BC Environmental Alliance (BCEA) –   with a mandate not merely to talk about the climate crisis but the courage to take action. Cancel pipelines. Put the brakes on logging. Curb mining.

But what does this actually mean for the people who live in Peace Country? Job loss, ghost towns, hardship. Sure, there are jobs during construction of these mega projects but once complete, most of those jobs come to an end, leaving the town gutted.

The play gives us five, 20 or 30-something characters, all old school friends –  all but one of whom grew up in and still live in a small, unnamed northern BC town. Their gathering place is the Muffin Break, a local coffee shop run by Candice (Kaitlyn Yott), a First Nations woman who grew up on the rez but lives and works in town. Fiercely political, she understands the climate crisis but she’s watching her town “hemorrhaging” (in her words) residents. Melissa (Sara Vickruck) left to live in the big city but came back, hoping to help queer kids who, like her, felt isolated, unsupported. No Pride Parade in this town. Alicia (Sofia Rodriguez) was reluctantly moved away from her home in Guatemala by parents who hoped for a better life in BC’s north. Greg (Angus Yam) is the son of immigrants and now, as an adult, has taken over his father’s Chinese restaurant.

But not only do these friends live in this town, they are deeply imbedded in it. Greg, for example, not only runs the restaurant but he heads up the volunteer fire department. Melissa works at the local mill but works with gay youth.

The fifth person in this group is the newly elected BCEA  MLA Julia (Manuela Sosa), Alicia’s sister. She has moved to the city and is rigorously pushing for changes that are good for the planet but that will have devastating repercussions on the town, her family and friends.

And that’s the conundrum in this province. How do we get off this hell-bent-for-leather, resource-extraction rollercoaster without destroying small-town Canada?

These characters feel so real, so authentic that we are truly drawn in. How will pulling the plug on resource extraction play out for each of them? And then there are the wildfires – a direct result of climate change – burning their way across the country. What does the future hold for Alicia, Candice, Melissa and Greg? And what about Julia who, if the BCEA is successful, will probably have her friends collecting EI until it runs out?

If this all sounds too heavy, don’t worry. Chamale peppers Peace Country with humour especially in the character of Melissa. Vickruck, who plays this character, is a terrific comedic performer and she keeps everything from bogging down. And it helps that we see these five characters not only as adults but also as kids racing around on their bikes and later as teenagers partying hard. They joke, they fart around, they’re quick and they’re funny. And this cast really gets it.

Set design by Kimira Reddy, with video design by Andie Lloyd, is gorgeously lit by Jonathan Kim: a vast back drop of a hill and sky almost makes a sixth character. Sometimes it’s shot with stars and northern lights; sometimes it’s cold and frosty. Its final phase is enough to haunt your dreams.

There are no easy answers to this man-made disaster and there are no easy answers in this play.

Transition, yes. But how? And who pays for it?

Directed by the playwright, developed in association with Playwrights Theatre Centre, the Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre  and created with support from the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Peace Country is a play for our time, our place. Go see it.